I’ve been reading these documents for over a year now, and something kept nagging at me that I couldn’t place until I lined them up by date.
The project hasn’t changed much. The words have changed enormously.
What follows is every description of this facility I can find, in the order it was written, from the earliest document we have to the postcard that arrived in my mailbox this week. Every one is linked.
The short version
March 2023, in a restricted agreement: a high performance computing facility and office building in support of the Advanced Simulation & Computing Program and Weapons Physics Directorate
, and — in the University’s own contribution to the same document — a secure data center
.
October 2026, to every household in this township: An academic research center.
Same building. Three and a half years apart.
Every description, in order
| Date | Document | How it’s described | Audience |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 2023 | NDA RSNDA-23-00761 | “a High Performance Computing facility and an office building in support of the Advanced Simulation & Computing Program and Weapons Physics Directorate” · and “a secure data center” | Private — restricted, by-name |
| Jul 2023 | NDA amendment2 | SmithGroup’s scope: “conceptual design package to examine the feasibility and best design concept for the new data center”, including a “DOE security risk assessment” | Private |
| Oct 2023 | MEDC commitment letter3 | A Department of Energy supercomputing laboratory at the American Center for Mobility campus | State — to the U-M president |
| Oct 2024 | Project L briefing memo4 | “a new advanced laboratory facility” · “at least two state-of-the-art advanced computing laboratories” · “the National Lab Building” · 100MW for the Partner, 10MW academic | State board, confidential |
| Oct 2024 | Draft term sheet4 | “a $785M computing laboratory campus” | State board, confidential |
| Nov 2024 | Meeting with Township5 | Per Supervisor Stumbo: 20 acres, two office buildings, 200 jobs, medical research. Per Chris Kolb: one facility with two components, one classified for Los Alamos | Township officials |
| Nov 2024 | MOU #2046 | “a center for high performance computing”, a central feature of the Innovation Campus near Ann Arbor | Between U-M and LANL |
| Nov 2024 | Fiscal impact modeling7 | “National Research Lab” — modeled as NAICS 541511, Custom Computer Programming Services | State, internal |
| Dec 2024 | MSF board packet8 | “two state-of-the-art advanced computing laboratories”, one for the University and one for a federal national research laboratory | State board, public record |
| 2025–26 | Public FAQ9 | “a specialized research hub, not a commercial data center” · “research computing center” · a 240,000 sq ft Federal Research Facility including classified research | Public |
| Aug 2026 | Site announcement10 | “landmark research computing center” | Public |
| Oct 2026 | Postcard to every household11 | “An academic research center” · “Focused on scientific innovation” | Every household in the township |
Three things that drop out along the way
“Data center”
This is the one I find hardest to get past.
In 2023, when these documents were private, the University’s own contribution to the non-disclosure agreement describes its interest as the construction, operation and maintenance of a secure data center.1 Four months later, the architect’s scope of work is a conceptual design package for the new data center.2
By the time the public FAQ appears, the phrase has become something to be explicitly denied: a specialized research hub, not a commercial data center.
I’ll grant the precision — commercial is doing real work in that sentence, and this isn’t a commercial colocation business. But federal law defines a data center as any facility that primarily contains electronic equipment used to process, store, and transmit digital information.
12 The University’s own architect called it one. So did the University.
“Weapons”
March 2023: in support of the Advanced Simulation & Computing Program and Weapons Physics Directorate.
That phrase appears once, in the earliest document, and never again in anything I have seen. By December 2024 it is a federal national research laboratory for advanced research.
By 2026 the public materials reference national security among a list of research areas, and the October postcard doesn’t mention Los Alamos’s mission at all.
To be fair: Director Mason’s September letter did confirm that computational work there could relate to nuclear modernization.13 That was more forthcoming than anything the University had published, and I said so at the time. It also came three and a half years after the agreement that named the Weapons Physics Directorate outright.
“Laboratory”
In the state filings this is consistently a laboratory. An advanced laboratory facility. Two advanced computing laboratories. The National Lab Building. A computing laboratory campus. A National Research Lab.
In the public materials it is consistently a center. A research computing center. A specialized research hub. An academic research center.
Nobody is lying in either case. But “National Lab Building” and “academic research center” produce very different pictures in the mind of someone who has to live beside it, and the first one went to the people writing the check.
The pattern, stated plainly
Read the table top to bottom and the sorting is hard to miss.
In private, and to the State: data center, weapons physics, national lab building, secure facility, DOE security risk assessment, 100 megawatts for the partner.
In public, and to this township: research computing center, specialized research hub, academic research center, scientific innovation, cancer care.
The documents that went to people with money and authority describe a federal laboratory. The documents that came to the people who will live next to it describe a university research building.
I don’t think anyone wrote a false sentence. Almost every one of these descriptions is defensible on its own terms, and a communications office would tell you each was tailored to its audience, which is what communications offices do.
But audiences talk to each other. And when a community reads the state filing after two years of postcards, what it learns isn’t just the megawatt split. It learns that a fuller description existed the whole time and went somewhere else.
That is most of why trust is gone here.
Sources
- Non-disclosure agreement RSNDA-23-0076, March 2023 (PDF) — see Recital II and Paragraph IV.1
- First amendment, NDA-23-0173, July 2023 (PDF)
- Letter from MEDC CEO Quentin L. Messer, Jr. to Dr. Santa Ono, October 27, 2023 (PDF)
- Project L briefing memo, October 2024 (PDF) · draft term sheet (PDF)
- Accounts of the November 2024 meeting given at the October 1, 2026 town hall. The two accounts differ; both are described there.
- Memorandum of Understanding #204, November 2024 (PDF)
- National Research Lab fiscal impact estimates, November 8, 2024 (PDF)
- December 2024 MSF Board packet (PDF)
- University of Michigan Office of the Vice President for Research, LANL FAQ. research.umich.edu
- The University Record, August 2026 site announcement. record.umich.edu
- Postcard mailed to Ypsilanti Township households, October 2026 (PDF) · my analysis
- Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, § 453(a)(1), codified at 42 U.S.C. § 17112(a)(1). uscode.house.gov
- Thom Mason, Director, Los Alamos National Laboratory, letter to the Ypsilanti Township community, September 2026. The University Record · my response
Every description above is quoted from the linked document. If I’ve missed a description, mischaracterized one, or left out context that changes the picture, tell me and I’ll fix it and say that I did. The full chronology is on the timeline.
